Spotlight: Tony Brown: Hu Dean Aims For Accreditation

HAMPTON — The university official and TV host sees no greater gift than to teach future journalists.

It's been two years since the former dean of Hampton University's journalism school abruptly quit and Tony Brown quickly jumped into the job.

Since then, the author and television talk show host has helped to expand HU's journalism program.

Brown and other HU officials will be in Chicago on Tuesday to appeal the findings of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, which failed to fully accredit HU's Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications earlier this year.

A native of Charleston, W.Va., Brown, who is 73, is probably best known for the long-running TV show "Tony Brown's Journal."

He recently talked about his past, his biggest regret and his future.

Q: You started a freshman class that begins at 6 a.m. What's the thinking behind getting students out of bed that early to come to class?

A: We all know that if someone meets you at 6 a.m. in the morning, they are serious about what they're doing. So we have been able to attract the students who are well motivated and often very well prepared for tasks that require extra output.

Q: Have you ever worked for a news-gathering operation?

A: I'm from a generation that was not allowed to major in journalism. At that time the only place that blacks got training in journalism was at the black newspapers. I worked as a reporter for the Detroit Courier for eight years. Then I became interested in television and I got into television.

Q: Since you never studied journalism, why do you think that you're qualified to run the journalism school?

A: I was the first dean of the Howard University School of Communication in 1971, until 1974. I have taught at three universities, so I've had an academic grounding. I would say high on the list of my attributes as a dean is my ability to attract and help develop a faculty, a way-above-average faculty. We are a small school. We do not pay large salaries. And we attract the best.

Q: Your talk show, "Tony Brown's Journal," is the longest running series on PBS television. How have you kept it going for 36 years?

A: We have remained true to our objective and that is the empowerment of the African-American community while we educate non-African Americans, and I think we do it very well. During some periods it was Tony Brown's income that kept us going, but we stayed and we have succeeded.

Q: You also produced a movie called "The White Girl" in 1995, right?

A: I lost financially somewhere between $3 million and $5 million of my own money on it. I produced the movie believing that a well-made movie with a good message that did not have sex or profanity would find a commercial audience. Was I naive. When we opened it in whatever limited distribution we could get, it bombed. I mean, it didn't even draw flies.

Q: Were your parents involved in writing or television? What did they do for a living?

A: I was dying of starvation at two months of age when I was rescued by a non-relative named Elizabeth Sanford, who came to my home in Charleston, W.Va. She was a maid and a dishwasher and the only mother I've ever known. I never had a father.

Q: At 73, do you have any retirement plans in the back of your mind?

A: I don't subscribe to a concept called retirement. The only thing that will retire me will be my health. This experience in helping train a new generation of young people that will be better trained than any generation we have ever had is one (of) the greatest gifts anybody could ever give Tony Brown and this is how I want to spend my final days.

Q: What do you like to do when you're not working?

A: Read. I read nonfiction. For the last six years I have been reading the history of ancient civilizations which led me to read and study the history of religion.

Q: What's been your biggest regret in life?

A: I think it's that I don't feel I've had enough time in this life to do all of the things I've wanted to do. I want to write more books. I think I have two more books in me. But I have difficulty answering that question because I don't feel like life has done me wrong. I feel the obstacles I've had in my life are the greatest assets anyone could ever have. *